Lisa Loeb, which was super awesome times ten and then some!!
Saturday, December 15, 2001
home sweet home -- I made it! I'm home!! It wasn't even really much of an adventure either (which is a good thing!)...
I left Ghana at 8:55 pm on Friday. After an attempted last meal at Asanka Local (we ran out of time and had to forgo the trip), MD saw me off at the airport. I waited in the airport for a bit, and when I boarded the plane, on the flight that I was on the wait list for until the day before, I was shocked to find it pretty much empty. I figured then that we must be picking up lots of folks when we stopped in Nigeria... but no. The plane stayed empty - I just don't get it! It was OK though... I had 4 seats all to myself, so I was able to lie down, stretch out and sleep all the way to Frankfurt.
culture-shock -- In Frankfurt, I was a little weirded out... for the first time in a long time, I wasn't a minority - there were white people EVERYWHERE. And, silly as it sounds, I was suddenly "average," no one wanted to talk to me, to sell me stuff, to marry me, nothing! It was somewhat of a relief, but sort of sad at the same time.
A few hours lay-over time and 10 1/2 flight hours later, I was in San Francisco. My best friend mike picked me up at the airport, and we stopped at Herbivore for lunch (oh man, was it yummy!). Driving through San Francisco was a trip -- so many cars, so many people, so little car exhaust (well, comparatively). Throughout the ride home, I blabbed on and on about all the crazy advenutres I had - little things reminded me of so much... things I miss, things I'm happy to leave behind.
Really though, right now anyways, it's sooooo good to be home.
Friday, December 14, 2001
last Ghanaian intermernetting! -- Man, I had all these plans to write all these reflective thoughts about leaving and such... but as usual, I'm all rushed and things to get ready to go. BUT, gotta love Ghana, I'm not even stressing (yet?)
So, yeah, California, here I come!
Thursday, December 14, 2001
papers -- I had two papers today (Ghanaian-speak for final exams), one on the history of high life, and one on African literature. It's been so long since I've done anything real academic... my first paper went so-so, but my second paper amazed me - I forgot that I know how to write!
In between exams, I went to Lufthansa office to figure out what is going on with my flight... and, it's CONFIRMED!! I'm leaving Ghana tomorrow! I'm so excited, but so sad too... there is SO SO SO much I am going to miss about Ghana, Ghanaians, and me-in-Ghana (if that makes any sense at all).
After my literature final, I began the task of packing... and oh, what a task it is. How I managed to gather so much stuff I have no idea... we'll see how much I'm actually going to be able to bring home!
While I was busy packing, Molly, Grace, and Sarah cooked me up an awesome feast - chili and a PHat salad, "rainbow salad" to be exact (it was so beautiful - full of veggies and mangoes and papayas and such... mmmmmm). We ate and joked around and had jolly good fun.
Afterwards, we met up with a large crew of kids from the hostel at Bywel's for my last night of Ghanaian dancing. We had a blast!! And, we ran into the fisherman from Ada, which was pretty surprising.
When I got home, I packed a little bit, then decided I better just wait until morning...
December 10-12, 2001
shopping! -- What better way to kill time at the end of the trip than to do some mad crazy Christmas shopping, eh? I went to the Art Center all three days (Mon with Greg, Tues - MD and Wed - Georgia)... which was somewhat (or somehow, as the Ghanaians would say) of a painful experience.
Besides packing, I've been eating lots of fufu, running lots of last minute errands (FINALLY, my flight home is confirmed!), and I guess just hanging around a bunch.
Wednesday night, I went out to Next Door again... and for awhile, I was the only American! I went with my roommate MD and two of her friends, Adua & Barbara, a German named Gabe, and three Japanese friends (I'm not going to even try to spell their names!), then Grace met me there later. There was no live music, but after sweet-talking the waiter, I was led into the manager's office, who let me look through all his records and CD's and help him be our personal DJ. We had a strange mix of high life, Shaggy, Daddy Lumba, 70's funk, and Michael Jackson (among lots of other stuff)... anyways, it was great fun.
Sunday, December 9, 2001
dodi islands -- Today was our final group trip (with all the Council kids), this time back to the Akosombo Dam. We didn't actually stop at the dam (perhaps because our drivers were running on Ghana time that morning, and we barely made it there by 10:30), but instead hopped right onto the Dodi Princess, a big ferry boat that took us out on the Volta River to see the Dodi Islands. We had such an awesome time! There was a live band on the top deck, so we danced to some awesome highlife music as we cruised across the river. An hour or so into the ride, a Ghanaian called me over to his table ("Oboruni, bra" - "white girl, come") to tell me I "dance Ghanaian well" (gotta love being an oboruni... anything you do is great). I noticed that he was playing Spa, the Ghanaian card game I learned in Bui (finally, I know the real name of the game) and said so - he was so excited that I knew how to play that he invited me and my friend Bonnie to join their game. We had so much fun! The game was loud, wild, high fives everywhere, and lots of loud shouts (quick note: I read in some guide book that Ghanaians are very quiet people and that you will hardly ever hear them raise their voices... I really wonder if the person who wrote that has visited Ghana...) and lots of laughing. Plus, the band was playing the reggae portion of their set, so everyone was sort of dancing as they played. In Spa, when you wind a hand, it's your turn to shuffle and deal... well, when I took the cards and started my shuffle, the Ghanaians jaws dropped - they apparently had never seen how oborunis shuffle before. They were all amazed, especially when I did "the bridge" or whatever. We had to stop the game so I could teach them how! Anyway, after two or so hours, we arrived at one of the Dodi Islands and got out to walk around. That was the least exciting part of the trip. The boat ride back was pretty much a repeat of the first leg... the same Ghanaians sought us out to play some more (and for more shuffling lessons).
On the way back, we made our bus driver stop at the side of the road so we could buy some fried yams - oh, how I'm gonna miss those yams!
Back on campus, a whole huge group of us went to watch some friends in a drama production - Colored Girls I think was the title. Anyway, it was pretty awesome. Then, I was SLEEPY, so... I slept.
Saturday (nighttime)
After a grueling game of owari (Ghanaian mancala), I went out in the hostel parking lot for the International Student Hostel (ISH) Christmas dinner... there was loud music (lots of highlife, Daddy Lumba, and Shaggy), decent food (lots of rice and yam balls), and just good ol' hanging around.
next door -- Afterwards, Grace and I went out with our Ghanaian friend Michael to an awesome nightclub, Next Door. It's a outdoorsy place, right next to the ocean (like, you can see waves as you dance). We danced like madcrazy, played a little pool, and just had fun times.
Saturday, December 8, 2001
let's swap -- So today, I loaded up my backpack with old T-shirts, shampoos, and other stuff not worth repacking... I got so much good stuff for it! Xmas presents galore! I even traded away my Pepto Bismol and Monestat (after a few somewhat embarrassing explanations). The biggest winners were the clear plastic picture frames I had brought to display pictures of my family and friends, go figure.
I just at a whole huge amount of fufu and groundnut soup with Grace at "Ansanka Locale"... oh, we tried the palmnut soup too, definitely not as good...
The malaria is almost finished - just a bit of a tummy ache left, and one more day of doxycycline, thank goodness. I'm ready to be all healthy and things again.
Thursday, December 6, 2001
so, I'm feeling better. not great -- I still have a bit of a headache and a tummyache, but nothing that will stop me from hanging out all day on the beach and having a big helping of fuf and groundnut soup for lunch!
Tonight, I'll go to Champ's Sports Bar, the honkiest place in Ghana, where my friends are hosting "quiz night" since they won last week. Afterwards, we'll go out dancing at Bywel's. woohoo!
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
malaria! -- yup, it finally happened... the cold I mentionned having this past week... well, yesterday morning after I ran a few errands, I felt awful... still the same cold symtoms, but a bad headache and a fever too. I figured I might as well check it out, just to be sure, and wouldn't you know, right before I am supposed to go home, I get malaria! doh! But, it's really not that bad (and my case seems to even be loads less worse than most of the other kids who have had it) - it just feels like a bad cold, plus I feel semi-delerious. But it is getting better quickly!
So yeah, I really haven't been up to much lately... classes are over... I've been reading a ton... and shopping a bit too (xmas is coming, however un-holiday-like it feels here). Tomorrow, I think I'll recuperate at the beach. Heh heh heh...